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Earthing simple and cheap methods?

amaru7

Senior Member
Messages
252
Hi

I have found a video on earthing, it does sound convincing, but I learned that many things that are convincing and have studies to back them up, end up being worthless by trying.

Like many of you CFS/ME patients, I have tried endless things. out of 100 maybe 3-4 really did make a difference.

Anyway I'm thinking about giving this a try

Did anyone have any real difference with it? And are there easy and non expensive methods, that dont require to put a wire outside in the earth and connect it to your bed?

Here I found 3 reasonably well priced products, what's your take on these?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gro...bc-4a6f-8eb0-edf811b20755&transAbTest=ae803_5

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gro...5b-47e8-9f52-ed96645765d5&transAbTest=ae803_5

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ON-...5b-47e8-9f52-ed96645765d5&transAbTest=ae803_5
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
I found sleeping while earthed created a beautifully deep and profound sleep on the first night, but on subsequent nights, earthing started to create very restless and disturbed sleep. Other people have reported the same thing.

A detailed thread on earthing found here.
 
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amaru7

Senior Member
Messages
252
I found sleeping while earthed created a beautifully deep and profound sleep on the first night, but on subsequent nights, earthing started to create very restless and disturbed sleep. Other people have reported the same thing.

I detailed thread on earthing found here.
8 pages thraead is too much now for my CFS, so you stopped this altogether or do you do it occasionally?
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
so you stopped this altogether or do you do it occasionally?

I tried earthing again some months later, but had the same result: deep sleep on the first night, but disturbed sleep on subsequent nights. So I've been unable to obtain any benefits from earthing, thus stopped completely.

But in the thread I linked to, the member says that she felt earthing cured her POTS. But later she said this:
I used the earthing sheet from earthing.com. I recently had to stop using the sheet because I moved to a high rise, and when I used the sheet in that outlet I had some very negative reactions. I had read that you have to be careful of dirty electricity that is in the ground from all the grounding rods of different units and buildings.

So I think earthing may depend on your environment. These earthing devices typically use the mains power earth (they provide a main plug which just plugs into the earth connector), and so depending on what sort of mains electric hum is picked up by your house earth, that may affect results.
 

BeADocToGoTo1

Senior Member
Messages
536
Walking barefoot outside.

Dipping your feet in shallow water.

Going for a dip in salty water.

I am not a fan of putting wires or metal plates in the bed as they can also act as an antenna. What does help me is to turn off the electricity breaker for the bedroom before I go to sleep. It provided me with better sleep and the EMF field was measurably lower since there are electrical lines that are not in a conduit behind and to the side of my bed.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
I am not a fan of putting wires or metal plates in the bed as they can also act as an antenna.

In this post I suggest that may be the basis of earthing: to pick up mains hum in your body, and to allow the hum current to flow to and from the earth via the earth wire.

I posit it may be the mains hum which is having a therapeutic effect. If you were to turn off the mains, it's possible the effects of earthing (good or bad) may not manifest. I think earthing may in fact just be a form of microcurrent therapy, where the mains hum that the body picks up drives the current. One individual in this thread said he cured his ME/CFS through microcurrent therapy.

Your body picks up the main hum all the time, so will experience a 50 Hz or 60 Hz varying voltage. However, very little current will flow in the body, as it has nowhere to go. But when you connect your body to earth, that voltage then drives a tiny electric current to and from the earth.

You can actually measure this electric current with an multimeter.
 
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outdamnspot

Senior Member
Messages
924
Out of interest, does anyone here still 'earth'? I was desperate to sleep last night so brought out my earthing band (even though it made me worse with continued use when I tried a few years ago). I've just started a new antibiotic too and the combined herx was profound; my guts were overactive all afternoon. I feel extremely depressed, however. @Hip do you still believe this is linked to th1 activation? Seems like a very powerful therapy. It's also great at actually inducing sleep, which I struggle with.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
. @Hip do you still believe this is linked to th1 activation?

You mean is the depression linked to Th1? I used to get increased depression when taking certain supplements that boost Th1 (but not all Th1 boosters caused depression in me).
 

outdamnspot

Senior Member
Messages
924
You mean is the depression linked to Th1? I used to get increased depression when taking certain supplements that boost Th1 (but not all Th1 boosters caused depression in me).

Yes, I was wondering if the depression means activating Th1 is inherently a bad thing, or more just a side-effect that one can decide to tolerate.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Yes, I was wondering if the depression means activating Th1 is inherently a bad thing, or more just a side-effect that one can decide to tolerate.

I do not think it is inherently a bad thing.

I wonder if the depression might be connected to an increased interferon response, because interferon is known to cause depression (and in fact if you are taking interferon therapy to target viral infection, you may need to take antidepressants just to combat the depression).
 

gbells

Improved ME from 2 to 6
Messages
1,491
Location
Alexandria, VA USA
I love earthing. It greatly helps the quality of my sleep. I have been using it for two years. Competitive bicyclists use it to speed recovery time as they sleep. The concept is simple, sleep having a metal contact that goes directly to a ground in the electrical socket next to your bed. This $25 unit from ebay is similar to the one I use, an antistatic band attached to a wire and grounding plug. It it much less expensive than the official grounding paraphanalia (silver sheets on the bed, etc).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Anti-Stati...885714&hash=item5d37785088:g:uiUAAMXQxzZRccXH

vs the $89 expensive version:

https://www.earthing.com/collections/all-products/products/earthing-body-band-kit

The only problem I've had is that the connection between the wire from the static wrist band and the plug wire will eventually wear and need to be reconnected using a connector and crimp tool. I reinforce it with glue from a glue gun for extra strength. Usually need to be redone twice a year.

The cord is long enough that you get used to sleeping with it on.

By the way, people that like to drink negative ionized water can stop doing that if they start sleeping with an earthing band since it dissipates the positive ions to ground. That can save a lot of money.
 
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Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
By the way, people that like to drink negative ionized water can stop doing that if they start sleeping with an earthing band since it dissipates the positive ions to ground. That can save a lot of money.

Earthing does not dissipate positive ions to ground, as the body is electrically neutral.
 

gbells

Improved ME from 2 to 6
Messages
1,491
Location
Alexandria, VA USA
Earthing does not dissipate positive ions to ground, as the body is electrically neutral.

The body is only neutral if it is grounded. Biochemical reactions generate a positive charge (ie. free radicals from immune reactions).

Objects with an excess of charge - either positive or negative - can have this charge removed by a process known as grounding. Grounding is the process of removing the excess charge on an object by means of the transfer of electrons between it and another object of substantial size. When a charged object is grounded, the excess charge is balanced by the transfer of electrons between the charged object and a ground.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/estatics/Lesson-2/Grounding-the-Removal-of-a-Charge
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
The body is only neutral if it is grounded. Biochemical reactions generate a positive charge (ie. free radicals from immune reactions).

You cannot generate electrical charge in an isolated body, because charge, like energy, is a conserved quantity (electric charge can neither be created nor destroyed). The charge in an isolated body before and after any biochemical reaction will always be the same.

(My first degree was in physics, so I have some background in these sort of subjects).
 
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Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,334
Location
Southern California
@amaru7 - I just read about earthing and sleep a couple of months ago. I don't have any dirt or grass where I live - it's high desert, lots of rock! But I found that sitting outside on the steps of my mobile home with my feet on the cement or concrete walkway for 30 minutes 2 x a day does help with sleep. The longer I'm able to do it, the better the results. I was very surprised to find this. Sometimes it is difficult to be able to do this for various reasons, but when I am able to do it, I sleep better.

After discovering this, I bought a half sheet grounding sheet, which did nothing for me, good or bad. I tested the plug as described in the directions and it seemed okay, but I slept no better using the sheet than not. So that was a waste of money for me. I may try the band that @gbells linked above, much more affordable!

I have a sister who has moderate rheumatoid arthritis - she gets by with 5 mg. prednisone and some Advil every day, and fortunately doesn't generally have severe pain and doesn't have to take something like methotrexate. However, sometimes the pain can get pretty bad. I told her about earthing and how it's supposed to relieve inflammation. So one night the pain was coming and she stood outside (she has dirt and grass where she lives, and also is able to stand for 30 minutes, unlike me!) for 30 minutes playing her guitar, and was very surprised when she realized at the end of the 30 minutes the pain was all but gone. And she did the same thing a second time on another day, with the same result.
 

gbells

Improved ME from 2 to 6
Messages
1,491
Location
Alexandria, VA USA
You cannot generate electrical charge in an isolated body, because charge, like energy, is a conserved quantity (electric charge can neither be created nor destroyed). The charge in an isolated body before and after any biochemical reaction will always be the same.

(My first degree was in physics, so I have some background in these sort of subjects).

Then why are free radicals a problem? According to your belief the body should automatically neutralize them? I don't agree with your interpretation. Human bodies are essentially designed to be barefoot bipedal apes walking around grounded on a bare floor. Since we do this the charges aren't allowed to dissipate and it creates a stress on the system that is manifested as excess charge and stress. Earthing helps to neutralize them along with glutathione and antioxidants which is part of the body's balancing mechanisms.

Ever get an electric zap in the winter? That's excess charge dissipating but with a magnitude so high it can be perceived.
 
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Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Then why are free radicals a problem? According to your belief the body should automatically neutralize them?

Free radicals do not have an overall electric charge (unless they are also ions, but in this case they will be paired with another ion of opposite charge, so that again the overall charge is neutral).

What makes free radicals reactive is not any excess of electric charge, but the particular arrangements of electrons in the outer orbital. Certain electron arrangements are particularly reactive (have a propensity to engage in chemical reactions), and that's the basis of a free radical. But the overall charge of the free radical is always zero, because the number of electrons (negative charge) in the orbitals will be equal to the number of protons (positive charge) in the nucleus.



Ever get an electric zap in the winter? That's excess charge dissipating but with a magnitude so high it can be perceived.

The reason you get a build up of static charge on your body is nothing to do with the internal body biochemistry. It only occurs under certain circumstances, such as for example when you walk on nylon carpets in shops, where the friction from the soles of your shoes can cause a build up of electric charge.

The easiest way to demonstrate that friction creates a build up of electric charge is the comb your hair briskly with a plastic comb. Then move the comb near some tiny pieces (a few mm in size) of torn up paper, and you will see this paper gets attracted to the comb, due to the electric attraction.
 

LINE

Senior Member
Messages
830
Location
USA
Bought a magnetic mattress (pure North field, low gauss) which has been a miracle for me.
 
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outdamnspot

Senior Member
Messages
924
Is there a reason earthing could increase inflammation? I have been trying it on and off for sleep lately and it tends to make me feel more 'sick'.
 

gbells

Improved ME from 2 to 6
Messages
1,491
Location
Alexandria, VA USA
Is there a reason earthing could increase inflammation? I have been trying it on and off for sleep lately and it tends to make me feel more 'sick'.

I use it with turmeric and other apoptosis stimulating treatments as part of a regimen I'm working on. During the regimen I get a return of the fasciculation response, then it goes numb, stops being tender and heals. Sometimes when I want to continue the apoptosis I skip it since it weakens the response, so I skip it occassionally. However, it is great after apoptosis is completed for energy recovery and good sleep. Overall, I'm making good progress and have eliminated the cold skin, photosensitivity and noise sensitivity and held the CFS at a moderate level. Exercise recovery and tolerance has greatly increased but the regimen drains a lot of energy so fatigue is still present. Before I could only do two sets of exercises and need three days recovery while now I'm at three sets without an increase in the recovery period. I've completely eliminated my sore throat and tender lymph nodes and stabilized my low immunity related oral health problems that led to extracting six teeth.